City reviewing residents' suggestions for Eastman

Published 7:00 pm, Monday, January 23, 2006

Midland residents offered so many opinions on Eastman Avenue traffic congestion in a monthlong survey that more time is being taken to examine the survey's results.

Mayor Bruce Johnson said input from the 704 surveys returned is valuable.

"We did get a clear direction that people are interested in the subject," he said.

City Clerk Selina Tisdale said residents weren't strongly in favor of any of the three proposed changes to Eastman presented by DLZ of Michigan.

"They wanted something between doing nothing and the three alternatives," she said.

Tisdale reported initial results analyzed by KezziahWatkins that show 49.6 percent of the survey respondents wanted to proceed with a project, while 40.6 wanted to postpone the work.

"We couldn't have fallen any more in the middle of the road if we tried," Tisdale said.

Among those wanting to proceed, 56.5 percent cited traffic as a serious problem, 17.4 percent said there was no advantage to postpone, 10.9 percent cited increasing costs if the city waits, 3.8 percent said not fixing problems will hurt businesses and 11.4 percent had other reasons.

Among those wanting to postpone, 27.1 percent cited the cost, 21.7 percent said there is not a serious problem, 21 percent said the scope of the study and solutions missed the mark, 9.6 percent said there are simpler solutions, 9.6 said the project is premature, 3.78 percent mentioned negative impact on businesses, 1.7 percent said the construction would be inconvenient and 5.6 percent had other reasons.

Tisdale said residents provided a lot of "excellent" feedback on the proposals.

"We knew we'd get new ideas and suggestions from the community," she said. "We didn't know it'd be this overwhelming."

Midland's City Council on Monday decided to cancel community workshops scheduled for February and have KezziahWatkins further analyze the residents' suggested improvements. The firm will report its findings at a future meeting.

At its meeting the council also:

* approved paying $24,889 to Engan, Tooley and Doyle Associates of Okemos for three playground structures that will be placed at Stratford Woods, Greenfield Park and the new St. Charles Softball Fields.

* accepted Joseph Dunn's resignation as an alternate on the Zoning Board of Appeals.

* approved a plat of the Forestview section at the Midland Cemetery, which will accommodate the burial of people who have been cremated.